Pointers: Control Keynote from Apple Watch

updated 08:07 am EST, Mon December 14, 2015

by MacNN Staff

Present with just a tap on your wrist

Add this to the list of things Apple Watch can do: you can control Keynote presentations from one. Where you used to need a MacBook, and probably had to stand close by in order to tap the arrow keys when you wanted to move on to the next slide, now you don't. Now you can present from your iPad, and you can roam the room, moving slides on with a tap on your Apple Watch.

There are just a couple of things to do to make it work, and then a couple of things to be aware of. Plus one or two important things that presenting this way can't yet handle.

This was tested on an Apple Watch running watchOS 2.1, and an original iPad Air running iOS 9.2 and Keynote 2.6.1, but as long as you line up Watch, iPhone, and iPad Air of pretty much any version, you're fine. We also used Apple's Lightning to VGA adapter, which cost a lot of money. One thing: this does not work on OS X.

Quick setup

Open Keynote on your iPad, and only then on your Apple Watch. If you can't see Keynote on your Apple Watch, and you definitely have Keynote on iOS, then check your iPhone's Watch settings. There will be a listing for Keynote; tap on that, and switch the slider to Show App on Apple Watch. If you do this the wrong way around, launch the Watch app first, you get told off:

As you're a good and fine person, though, who has indeed launched Keynote, you only get a mildly encouraging scolding:

Open a presentation. Once one is open and ready to be edited, your Apple Watch displays a green Play button which could possibly be more green, but couldn't be any bigger.

Tap that button, and off you go. Your presentation plays on your iPad, and you can stride around the room scaring people with the idea you might be thinking of audience participation. In a way, you are: you're getting them ready to participate in laughing at you when you tap on your Watch and nothing happens.

That's because of the Apple Watch's turning itself off whenever it can. If your Watch is set up the way Apple originally intended, then when you drop your wrist, it goes dark -- and when you lift it again you're at the Watch face. Not the Keynote app. You can't stop the Watch going dark, but you can set it so that it opens back up at Keynote. We're not actually keen on this: really what you're doing is setting that the Watch reopens the last-used app or last-used action. Usually we want to see the time.

Yet for when we present, we do this: go to settings on your Watch. Tap on the General setting and choose Wake Screen. It is probably already set to turn on when you raise your wrist, but make sure it is. Then look under the Resume To section, and select Previous Activity. You'll just probably be returning to this to undo it again after every presentation.

With all this set and once the presentation is playing, you can just raise your wrist and see a blue Next Slide button, plus a handy count of where you are in your talk:

There is a problem. That presentation has 79 slides in it, which means 79 glances at your Watch and 79 times that everybody thinks you're bored. You're going to have to practice doing this subtly and without looking. Casually put your hands behind your back and tap the Watch face once to wake it, once to move the slide on. You can do it.

There's no going back, sort of

You'll have spotted this: the great big blue Next Slide button doesn't leave any room for going back to the previous slide. That's actually good: one button doing one job that you need makes it easier to tap, tap, tap through while you're talking. When you do need to go back, Force Touch on the Watch face. That gives you a Back option, plus an Exit Presentation.

Don't ever press Exit Presentation: if your audience is gone, then you're going to pack up your iPad, so switch off the presentation there. You've seen presentations that start with the Mac or (shudder) Windows desktop and end up back there at the end. It's not pretty. Avoid the last part by having some blank slides at the end of your Keynote presentation, and not pressing that Watch button. The only way to avoid people seeing either the desktop or your fumbling with wires at the start is to have begun the presentation before the audience comes in.

We do really like this way of presenting, even as it seemed very unearthly strange the first few times, but we don't like what happens when you go back a slide via your Watch. It works fine, but once you've Force Touched once, the big blue Next Slide icon changes. It becomes half the size, and for the rest of your presentation it shares the Watch screen with a blue half-size Previous Slide button. You'd think that would be fine, but it means you have to look at the Watch screen so you have little chance of being able to surreptitiously just tap to continue moving forward.

What you can't do

You can't read your notes on your Apple Watch: the presenter notes feature in Keynote isn't there. If for some reason you are presenting to people directly from your iPad, perhaps a small group sitting around your iPad Pro, then you won't have any presenter notes at all. If the iPad is connected to a display or a projector, then you should get the option on your iPad to show presenter notes so in theory, you just amble over to that screen and read when you need. In practice we've had mixed results with presenter notes, but lately we've been less fussed because of Slide Over.

We now routinely run a Keynote presentation on our iPads, and Slide Over the OmniOutliner document we planned the talk on. The advantage is that you have as many and as detailed a set of notes as you like, plus you can scroll to see what's coming up. However, when you Slide Over OmniOutliner or any other app, that app becomes the one in the foreground. It's the one things happen in when you tap.

That means Keynote becomes the app in the background: you can see it, or most of it, but you can't control anything on it until you tap away from the Slide Over app. Since you can't do that on the iPad, you can't do it on the Apple Watch. With Split Screen on the iPad Pro, you can leave your outline open, you don't have to slide it back, but you do still have to tap back on Keynote before the Watch app will work.

Is this really necessary?

We'll go with yes, it is. When we used to present from our MacBook Pro, we accidentally discovered that our Apple TV remote would control Keynote. That was superb: the remote is small and handy, it looks good. We swapped to our iPads only when that MacBook fell apart, and everything is now great, except that we can't control the iPad through that remote.

Instead we've had to use the iPhone's own version of Keynote as a remote control. If you think it will look bad glancing at your Watch 79 times, imagine looking like you're more interested in texting people.

So while we are still practicing our best ways to use the Apple Watch's Keynote app without distracting our audience, we find this an awful lot better than using the iPhone remote.

TAGS

0 Comments

Login Here

Please note that it takes a couple of minutes for new comments to be visible in this area.

&nbsp

Now AAPL Stock: The symbol you provided ("AAPL") doesn't appear to be registered

Cirrus creates Lightning-headphone dev kit

Apple supplier Cirrus Logic has introduced a MFi-compliant new development kit for companies interested in using Cirrus' chips to create Lightning-based headphones, which -- regardless of whether rumors about Apple dropping the analog headphone jack in its iPhone this fall -- can offer advantages to music-loving iOS device users. The kit mentions some of the advantages of an all-digital headset or headphone connector, including higher-bitrate support, a more customizable experience, and support for power and data transfer into headphone hardware. Several companies already make Lightning headphones, and Apple has supported the concept since June 2014. http://bit.ly/29giiZj

Share

Developer627d

Apple Store app offers Procreate Pocket

The Apple Store app for iPhone, which periodically rewards users with free app gifts, is now offering the iPhone "Pocket" version of drawing app Procreate for those who have the free Apple Store app until July 28. Users who have redeemed the offer by navigating to the "Stores" tab of the app and swiping past the "iPhone Upgrade Program" banner to the "Procreate" banner have noted that only the limited Pocket (iPhone) version of the app is available free, even if the Apple Store app is installed and the offer redeemed on an iPad. The Pocket version currently sells for $3 on the iOS App Store. [32.4MB]

Share

627d

Porsche adds CarPlay to 2017 Panamera

Porsche has added a fifth model of vehicle to its CarPlay-supported lineup, announcing that the 2017 Panamera -- which will arrive in the US in January -- will include Apple's infotainment technology, and be seen on a giant 12.3-inch touchscreen as part of an all-new Porsche Communication Management system. The luxury sedan starts at $99,900 for the 4S model, and scales up to the Panamera Turbo, which sells for $146,900. Other vehicles that currently support CarPlay include the 2016 911 and the 2017 models of Macan, 718 Boxster, and 718 Cayman. The company did not mention support for Google's corresponding Android Auto in its announcement. http://bit.ly/295ZQ94

Share

Industry627d

Apple employees testing wheelchair features

New features included in the forthcoming watchOS 3 are being tested by Apple retail store employees, including a new activity-tracking feature that has been designed with wheelchair users in mind. The move is slightly unusual in that, while retail employees have previously been used to test pre-release versions of OS X and iOS, this marks the first time they've been included in the otherwise developer-only watchOS betas. The company is said to have gone to great lengths to modify the activity tracker for wheelchair users, including changing the "time to stand" notification to "time to roll" and including two wheelchair-centric workout apps. http://bit.ly/2955JDa

Share

Troubleshooting627d

SanDisk reveals two 256GB microSDXC cards

SanDisk has introduced two 256GB microSDXC cards. Arriving in August for $150, the Ultra microSDXC UHS-I Premium Edition card offers transfer speeds of up to 95MB/s for reading data. The Extreme microSDXC UHS-I card can read at a fast 100MB/s and write at up to 90MB/s, and will be shipping sometime in the fourth quarter for $200. http://bit.ly/294Q1If

Share

Upgrades/storage627d

Apple's third-quarter results due July 26

Apple has advised it will be issuing its third-quarter results on July 26, with a conference call to answer investor and analyst queries about the earnings set to take place later that day. The stream of the call will go live at 2pm PT (5pm ET) via Apple's investor site, with the results themselves expected to be released roughly 30 minutes before the call commences. Apple's guidance for the quarter put revenue at between $41 billion and $43 billion. http://apple.co/1oi1Pbm

Share

Investor628d

Twitter stickers slowly roll out to users

Twitter has introduced "stickers," allowing users to add extra graphical elements to their photos before uploading them to the micro-blogging service. A library of hundreds of accessories, props, and emoji will be available to use as stickers, which can be resized, rotated, and placed anywhere on the photograph. Images with stickers will also become searchable with viewers able to select a sticker to see how others use the same graphic in their own posts. Twitter advises stickers will be rolling out to users over the next few weeks, and will work on both the mobile apps and through the browser. http://bit.ly/29bbwUE